THE SUPREME COURT CANCELED THE DECISION ON THE LOWERING OF THE CREDITOR’S CLAIMS

The judges of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation restored legal justice in the bankruptcy case of one legal entity.

The debtor was a security under the bank loan agreement, and his property was pledged by the bank and was transferred to the latter in compliance with the terms of the settlement agreement concluded between him, the borrower and the bank.

After that, the guarantor's creditors succeeded in declaring him insolvent, and in the framework of this court case, the agreement on the transfer of the collateral to the bank was invalidated.

The bank, in turn, took measures to return the real estate to the guarantor and, at the same time, applied to the court with a demand to include the debt into the list of the creditors’ claims of the latter.

However, the courts were ambivalent about the bank's intention to include its claims in the register. The district court, in particular, downgraded the bank's claim, referring to the fact that the disputed pledged property was not returned by the creditor to the debtor within the statutory period.

Challenging the decision, the bank pointed to the fact that the property was not returned to it in a timely manner due to the inactivity of the manager of the debtor, who was in no hurry to take active steps to take over real estate together with the registration of the bank's pledge on it.

The Supreme Court did not see the fault or responsibility of the bank, and therefore pointed out the illegality of lowering the creditor's claims under such circumstances (definition No. 307-ES18-16859 (3) of August 6, 2020